Terraserver Shows Off Sensitive Sights

From: Mark LeCuyer <randydan@wavetech.net>
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 18:11:37 -0500
Fwd Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 10:36:56 -0400
Subject: Terraserver Shows Off Sensitive Sights
From: Alien Astronomer
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583
TerraServer shows off sensitive sights
By Alan Boyle, MSNBC
June 26, 1998 4:36 AM PT
A free Internet archive of aerial images includes hard-to-get
photographs of U.S. spy installations, intelligence experts say.
On Wednesday, they were hard to get on the Web as well: Due to high
traffic, lots of users found it difficult to connect with the site.
The Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) TerraServer project, offering almost 180
million overhead images taken from airplanes and satellites, was
formally unveiled Wednesday at a computer trade event for
governmental agencies in Washington.
But the Web site was active even before its official debut, and John
Pike of the Federation of American Scientists cruised around the site
looking for overhead pictures of sensitive areas. Aerial intelligence
imagery is one of Pike's specialties, and he was amazed at what he
found.
He said there were aerial photos of Raven Rock, Md., the Pentagon
bunker north of the Camp David presidential retreat; and Mount
Weather, Va., the underground complex operated by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. Those two facilities are thought to be
designed to house government leaders in the event of an emergency.
Another photographic subject was Camp Perry, Va., which houses a
training complex for the CIA's Directorate of Operations.
"I was able to find each of those in about 10 minutes or so," he
said.
Pike said the photos are publicly accessible by other means - after
all, they originally came from the U.S. Geological Survey. But in the
past, the red tape was a formidable hurdle for image-hunters.
"You're putting in one place the one-stop access to a large chunk of
what's available instead of having to go through all these channels,"
said Jeffrey Richelson, author of "The U.S. Intelligence Community."
Area 51 missing
NBC producer Robert Windrem, an expert on U.S. intelligence, said the
database also includes photos of sensitive communications facilities
near Sugar Grove, W.Va.; Remington, Va.; and Warren Grove, N.J.
Images of Nevada's Area 51, the focus of UFO lore, are not included
in the database ... yet. The current database covers an estimated 45
percent of the contiguous United States plus a smattering of areas
around the rest of the world. But the partners behind TerraServer say
more images will be added to the database, with the entire United
States likely to be covered next year.
The partners behind TerraServer say they came under no government
pressure to block out the images, which come from a USGS aerial
survey as well as Russian satellite photos.
For the rest of the article visit:
http://www.developer.com/news/stories/062698_terraserver.html